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Our Sitters this week should be prepared to dance the 'HEARTlem SHAKE' as our Heart Sutra chant this week. DETAILS BELOW!

OUR TALK THIS TIME WILL BE ON ZEN PRACTICE AND ALL OF LIFE as SILLY DANCING!

Please 'sit-a-long' with our MONTHLY4-hourZAZENKAI, netcast LIVE8am to noon Japan time Saturday morning (that is New York 6pm to 10pm, Los Angeles 3pm to 7pm (Friday night), London 11pm to 3am and Paris midnight to 4am (early Saturday morning))

... to be visible at the following link during those times and any time thereafter ...

LIVE ZAZENKAI NETCAST at GOOGLE+ IS HERE:CLICK ON THE TAB ON LOWER RIGHT FOR 'FULL SCREEN

FOR THOSE NOT ALREADY MEMBERS OF THE CIRCLE WHO WISH TO JOIN TO SIT LIVE WITH A CAMERA, INSTRUCTIONS are posted AT THIS LINK. WE ARE NOW LIMITED TO 10 INDIVIDUALS WITH CAMERAS, BUT ANY NUMBER CAN WATCH LIVE 'ONE WAY' AND SIT-A-LONG VIA THE ABOVE SCREEN. IF JOINING WITH CAMERA, PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR MICROPHONE IS MUTED:

Our Zazenkai consists of our chanting the 'Heart Sutra' and the 'Identity of Relative and Absolute (Sandokai)' in English (please download our Chant Book at the link below), some full floor prostrations (please follow along with me ... or a simple Gassho can be substituted if you wish), a little talk by me ... and we close with the 'Metta Chant', followed at the end with the 'Verse of Atonement' and 'The Four Vows'. Oh, and lots and lots of Zazen and walkin' Kinhin in between!

Please download and print out the Chants we will recite at the following link (PDF):

I STRONGLY SUGGEST THAT YOU POSITION YOUR ZAFU ON THE FLOOR IN A PLACE WHERE YOU ARE NOT STARING DIRECTLY AT THE COMPUTER SCREEN, BUT CAN GLANCE OVER AND SEE THE SCREEN WHEN NECESSARY. YOUR ZAFU SHOULD ALSO BE IN A POSITION WHERE YOU CAN SEE THE COMPUTER SCREEN WHILE STANDING IN FRONT OF THE ZAFU FOR THE CEREMONIES, AND HAVE ROOM FOR BOWING AND KINHIN.

ALSO, REMEMBER TO SET YOUR COMPUTER (& SCREEN SAVER) SO THAT IT DOES NOT SHUT OFF DURING THE 4 HOURS.

I hope you will join us ... an open Zafu is waiting. When we drop all thought of 'here' 'there' 'now' 'then' ... we are sitting all together!

All folks joining in our Heart Sutra ceremony this month are requested (in fact, dancing is not optional!) to join in the 'HEARTlem Shake' as our "Heart Sutra" recitation.

For you folks who don't know what the "Harlem Shake' is (like me until about two days ago! ) ... here are some examples. You will be expected to stand solemnly in Gassho as I kick it off and, at the appropriate time JUMP IN! Yes, please bring any costumes or props you feel express who you are (ah, maybe not too risky please!) .

Please study closely the following for the exact time you are to jump in ...

Are we being silly!? OF COURSE! Can the Heart Sutra be a silly dance? OF COURSE!

I actually am making a point here (for those who need some philosophical justification for dancing, as if that is needed!) ... that all life is a dance, this world is a dance ... it is a dance of our happiness, a dance of our sorrows, a dance of falling in love, a dance of losing those we love, a dance we dance ... a dance which dances us ... a dance dancing the dance. Life is wonderfully serious-silly dance.

I hope you will all be brave and jump in! In fact ... DANCING IS MANDATORY! NO JUST STANDING THERE TODAY!

I wish to thank our Myoku who made a small change to one word in the Harlem Shuffle ... it now says ...

Con los Buddhistas!

(Also thank you to Heisoku's teenage son who offered to help). Here is Myoku's version ..

Thank you to all the dance partners today! Myozan, love the cricket gear!

Here is the "Zen Monks Ballet" I mentioned, the monks of Sojiji during their Morning Chanting ... Check out from the 7:15 to 12:00 mark. What they are doing is a ritual reading of a very large Sutra, by flipping through the pages. The idea behind it is very much like the Tibetan Prayer Wheel, where every turn of the Sutra in the wheel gathers merit ...

And here is the Hatsune Miku Heart Sutra we danced second ... perhaps not your image of the "Heart Sutra" ...

More on Hatsune Miku ...

Hatsune Miku (初音ミク) is the first Japanese Vocaloid2 in the Vocaloid2 Character Vocal Series, the third Japanese Vocaloid created by Crypton Future Media, and is the seventh Vocaloid to have appeared overall; released on August 31, 2007. She is considered as the most popular and well known Vocaloid and the first to become a pop idol. The data for the voice was created by sampling the voice of Saki Fujita (藤田 咲, Fujita Saki), a Japanese voice actress.

Crypton had the idea to release Miku as "an android diva in the near-future world where songs are lost."[3][4] When KEI illustrated Miku, he was asked to draw Miku as an android and a color scheme to go off of (based on YAMAHA synthesizer's signature blue-green color). Crypton also provided KEI her detailed concepts, however, Crypton says it was not easy to explain what a "Vocaloid" was like to him, and KEI says he could not create an image of a "singing computer" at first, as he did not even know what a "synthesizer" was. It took him more than a month. [5] The digital design on Miku's skirt and boots are based off synthesizer program colours and the bars represent the actual bars within the program, following Crypton's idea. Part of her design seems to be based on Yamaha's keyboard model DX-100 [6].

Thank you

Thank you so much for today and all the other Zazenkais. The time doesn't translate well to the UK for me to join live but it is great to catch up with you all at some point during the weekend and it makes a real difference feeling part of a sangha as opposed to my solitary daily practice.

I missed the dance as well...but I am dancing right now! Was great to sit Zazenkai with everyone who did, will, and has sat. Thank you all.
Gassho, Jakudo.

Gassho, Shawn Jakudo Hinton
It all begins when we say, “I”. Everything that follows is illusion.
"Even to speak the word Buddha is dragging in the mud soaking wet; Even to say the word Zen is a total embarrassment."
寂道

That was the most exhausting Heart Sutra I've ever done! I was sitting shirtless during the first zazen yesterday.
Sat the second zazen and listened to the talk this morning. Last two zazen periods will be tomorrow. It was fun everyone.